The Red Sox made a very lucrative offer to Damon, so I guess they would have figured out where he could have played. Damon took the Yankees offer quickly without giving the sox time to counter offer. I think Damon was more done with the sox then they were of him.

Later in Damon's career post Yankee, the sox made an effort to get Johnny back here, but Damon blocked the deal.

They wanted Damon back as a pinch hitter/4th outfielder for a couple of months in a pennant race. How is that relevant? They did make him an offer when he was a free agent, but they would have had to move him or Manny before that contract was over. Considering the success they had in '07 and '08, and how bad his defense became, I think they were happy he took the Yankee deal. This Front Office has made some very poor decisions signing free agents over the years (who hasn't), but their track record of knowing when to let one of their own walk has been excellent overall.

See Moon's post. He explains exactly why it would not have been a good idea to sign him...

1) He could not play CF or RF for Boston as he aged. (We had a LF'er.)

2) His numbers in NY would not have translated as well to Boston.

3) The extra year was not worth it.

4) We got a few good years out of Daniel Bard - the comp pick for losing Damon.

5) We used the Damon money to make budget room for Beckett, Lowell, or Schilling.

Good points but how often is the extra year worth it? I was not upset when Damon left but I liked him as a player and obviously the sox did too with their generous offer. My bringing up how the sox tried to get him back later in his career, was to only accent how much the sox liked him.

The beckett and lowell deal would have been done regardless.

Damon's leaving was fodder for Wendi Nix, which in one way was worth him leaving. I was more upset when Wendi left Boston.

Wakefield probably pitched a year too long..but if we're talking about reaching back..my pick would be Wakefield in his prime. He will go down in history as one of the top Red Sox pitchers regardless of how some people feel about him.

Added to that..he was a great team player and great in the clubhouse.

If we're going to go way back in the Red Sox time machine..I'd throw Luis Tiant in that mix.

Beltre, Damon. Glad that Pedro left, he did not do much with the mets and always was injured. We also got Buch with the pedro compensation pick.

The problem with Damon was that the Yankees realized in year 2 of his 4 year deal that he could no longer play center, but they were able to put him at DH and left at times. Since the Sox had Manny & Ortiz in their prime at those positions, you'd have to say the Sox absolutely made the right decision to let him go.

I guess we could debate it for a while. Damon was still clutch during those yankees years and most I think look back and say he should have stayed here. Plus he got along well with ortiz and manny. The sox got cheap with Damon and then went out and over paid for JD Drew.

Cheap?

They offered a 33 year old center fielder who was incapable of playing CF 3 years for somewhere around $36mill.

And bear in mind, this team had nowhere to play him anyway. He couldn't move to LF (Manny) and they could not move him to DH (Ortiz). Damon and his "arm" were a very poor fit for RF.

The bigger surprise was that they ever offered 3 years to a guy who had no fit into the present plans, let alone the future ones...

Dropping Damon after reading some of the posts on that subject, just didn't want to see him go after the 2004 miracle. Add Bagwell, as I remember seems like we traded him for a reliever, was it Anderson?, who pitched a couple months during a pennant race and that was it. Bags went on to become a premier bat.